Silva Manager Calls Greasing Talk 'Ridiculous'

Ed Soares, the manager of UFC middleweight champion Anderson
Silva, is denying Silva did anything wrong following an SI.com
blog that said Silva wiped Vaseline from his face onto his body and
arms as he entered the Octagon Saturday at UFC 97.

“I'm sorry to say this, but it was pretty obvious that Silva took
his hands, wiped down his face and rubbed his chest and arms,”
wrote SI.com’s Josh Gross in a live blog during the event. Numerous
sites picked up on Gross’ observation, which was discussed on fan
forums over the weekend and Monday.

Soares, who worked Silva’s corner and watched a replay of the event
afterward, called the observation and its subsequent discussion
“ridiculous.”

On the UFC 97 pay-per-view broadcast, the cameras show a cutman
applying Vaseline to Silva’s eye area on the venue’s floor level
before Silva ascends the steps into the Octagon. Silva then sashays
around the cage’s inside perimeter. He appears to be wiping his
face and then pats down his chest, stomach and arms as he turns to
address his corner.

Soares said Silva was merely wiping off the lubricant, which is
universally applied to all contestants to help prevent cuts.

“How much Vaseline can they put on someone’s eyebrows that’s going
to make a difference?” Soares asked Sherdog.com on Monday. “Where’s
he going to wipe it? If he wasn’t wiping it on his shorts, where
would he wipe it? It wasn’t like he was rubbing it in. He just took
it off. We didn’t put it on. It was [the cutman] that put it
on.”

Soares added that Silva and opponent Thales
Leites never reached a position where lubricant could have made
a difference.

Silva earned a unanimous decision in the fight for a
record-breaking ninth straight victory in the UFC. He controlled
the pace and direction of the bout for much of the 25 minutes,
though the feared striker picked his shots against a pensive
Leites. Leites offered little offense of his own other than the
occasional punch, kick or takedown attempt and often fell to his
back to engage Silva on the mat.

Silva has received negative backlash for his tempered performance,
including sober words from UFC President Dana White, who called the
fight “disappointing.”

A frustrated Soares told Sherdog.com that the 34-year-old champion
held to a specific strategy and achieved numerous goals in the
bout.

“He did everything that people questioned he could do,” said
Soares. “When it went to the ground, Thales Leites couldn’t pass
his guard. The question if he could go five rounds? He went five
rounds without breaking a sweat for 25 minutes. What else does the
guy have to do? Is the only thing they want to see is knockouts?
Then, put fighters against [Silva] that will stand and bang with
him, not guys that will fall on their backs.”

Soares also questioned why the public has overlooked the larger
ramifications of Silva’s victory.

“Nobody has ever done what he’s done,” said Soares. “Why aren’t
people focusing on that?”

Though Soares said Silva hasn’t expressed a specific interest in
fighting the UFC’s other pound-for-pound giant, Georges
St. Pierre, Soares said the bout would be a welcome one for the
camp. White stated on Saturday that he’d like to promote the mega
fight in Toronto, where MMA is currently not sanctioned or
regulated.

Asked whom he believed Silva, now 24-4, would like to be matched up
against next, Soares answered, “his clone.”